17 January 2012

It's about time I shared a new tutorial, don't you think? Last month we had a family wedding to attend, with the groom's family asked to wear something yellow. I found some really pretty voile floral fabric (at WalMart of all places!), and thought it would make a fun accessory. The result are these flowers, which make a great hair clip or brooch.

They are really simple to make...you don't even have to use a sewing machine, although it makes things quicker. Ready to play along? Grab your supplies...

To make two flowers, you'll need:

1/4 yard of thin, sheer fabric from selvage to selvage (not a fat quarter). A cotton voile works well.

Scrap of coordinating felt

Covered button kit or other matching button

Matching thread

Hand needle, scissors, and measuring tools.

Step one. Cut a 4-5" wide strip of fabric, selvage to selvage. Fold it in half, and sew a gathering stitch at 1/4" along the cut edge. I used my ruffler to make this go extra quick, but you could easily sew a small running stitch by hand. You've now created a ruffled fabric tube, about 20" long.

Step two. With your hand needle, sew a running stitch to gather one end of your fabric tube.

Step three. Form your first petal by bunching about 2 inches of length together. (Gathered inches, not the original length of the fabric!)

Wrap your thread around the point where you want the petal to end.

Then secure the wrap with a small knot.

Repeat to form 4 more petals. On the final petal, you'll also sew a running stitch to gather the other end of the fabric and secure the end at the base of your petals.

Step four. Hand stitch the petals together to secure the shape of the flower. Your stitches will be on the back of the flower.

Step five. Finishing touches. To finish up the flower, sew a covered button in the center of the petals.

Alternatively, I cut a small circle of felt with my pinking shears, and sewed a smaller button on my daughters' flowers.

You can then attach the flower to a hair clip, or sew a pin to the back to create a brooch. To add a safety pin to my brooch, I whip stitched a safety pin to a circle of felt.

and then sewed the felt to the back of my flower.

These are simple to make, and give a little different look than some of the other fabric flowers I've made. The key is using thin, voile-type fabric so that your petals aren't too thick.

How are things in your neck of the woods? We have storm barreling down on us. The good news is the roof trusses are in place on our new house. The bad news, the wind has been so fierce that our contractor cannot put the sheeting on the roof. We'll be heading over there this afternoon to clean up what we can in anticipation of getting several inches of snow. It looks like I'll be shoveling out my house this week!

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All tutorials and patterns presented here are created by Christine Pickup, copyright 2009-2014, or respective copyrights of my guests. You are welcome to create to your heart's content, for personal use only, please.